IHS iSuppli have performed their traditional tear down of the Nokia Lumia 900 and found Nokia and the lower hardware requirements of Windows Phone 7 has managed to keep costs low at only $209 for the bill of material.

Saying the device was a showcase of how efficient Windows Phone 7 was, iSuppli analyst Andrew Rassweiler said it seemed to be aimed at enticing other hardware manufacturers by demonstrating that a full-featured smartphone can be built using components that are about a generation behind and cheaper the current high end.

The tear down revealed the processor was only $17, vs $22 for a dual core processor commonly used in Android handsets, and that the device only used 512 MB RAM vs the 1 GB commonly found in Android handsets. The phone also used an older, cheaper bluetooth chip, which saved $2.50 vs the newer ones found in Android handsets.

â€œIt appears what Microsoft and Qualcomm and Nokia are trying to do here â€” and this is being driven by Microsoft more than anyone else â€” is streamline the OS so it can run on a lighter processing platform,â€ Rassweiler told me. â€œThe point being is to undercut the higher end phones.â€

In July 2011 the HTC Thunderbolt, on Verizon, has a BOM of $262. The Samsung Galaxy Skyrocket LTE on AT&T has a BOM of $235. The 16 GB iPhone 4S however costs $188, but of course does not have LTE.

iSuppli also suggested Microsoft was giving Nokia a deal on the Windows Phone OS itself, saying they believed Nokia was only paying $5, rather than $15, for the software not far of the $3 licensing costs for Symbian.